![barsoom chess barsoom chess](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uO9eiCU8ZMo/UB_Z1T_qFxI/AAAAAAAAJPg/RzJ47l_igT4/s1600/images.jpg)
A brief description of the game may interest those Earth readers who care for chess, and will not be lost upon those who pursue this narrative to its conclusion, since before they are done they will find that a knowledge of jetan will add to the interest and the thrills that are in store for them. One player has twenty black pieces, the other, twenty orange pieces. I never see it played without thinking of Tara of Helium and what befell her among the chessmen of Barsoom.įollowing the meal Dejah Thoris and The Warlord played at jetan, the Barsoomian game of chess, which is played upon a board of a hundred alternate black and orange squares. It is played on a board like yours, except that there are a hundred squares and we use twenty pieces on each side. And there is a race there that plays it grimly with men and naked swords. "We have a game on Mars similar to chess," he said, "very similar. Only Dejah Thoris, her mother, could be more beautiful than Tara of Helium."įor a moment he fingered the chessmen idly. "A daughter," he replied, "only a little younger than Carthoris, and, barring one, the fairest thing that ever breathed the thin air of dying Mars. The black hair, the steel-gray eyes, brave and smiling, the noble features-I recognized them at once, and leaping to my feet I advanced with outstretched hand.Īs he spoke he dropped into the chair upon the opposite side of I saw framed there the figure of a bronzed giant, his otherwise naked body trapped with a jewel-encrusted harness from which there hung at one side an ornate short-sword and at the other a pistol of strange pattern. I thought it was Shea returning to speak with me on some matter of tomorrow's work but when I raised my eyes to the doorway that connects the two rooms While thus profitably employed I heard the east door of the living-room open and someone enter. Shea had gone to bed and I should have followed suit, for we are always in the saddle here before sunrise but instead I sat there before the chess table in the library, idly blowing smoke at the is honored head of my defeated king. Shea had just beaten me at chess, as usual, and, also as usual, I had gleaned what questionable satisfaction I might by twitting him with this indication of failing mentality by calling his attention to the nth time to that theory, propounded by certain scientists, which is based upon the assertion that phenomenal chess players are always found to be from the ranks of children under twelve, adults over seventy-two or the mentally defective-a theory that is lightly ignored upon those rare occasions that I win. The relevant aspect of this book was the invention, and presentation in great detail, of a chess variant, Martian Chess or Jetan.īurroughs introduced the game Jetan right in the introduction (but goes into greater detail later in the book and in the appendix) : It was published in book form the following year. The Chessmen of Mars was a 6-part story published in the pulp-fiction magazine, Argosy on Feb. The first was an article called, " Is There Chess on Mars?" by Taylor Kingston and the second was an e-text of the book itself. Serendipitously, I ran across two distinct references to this book in as many days. The Chessmen of Mars, the fifth title in the series, is the reason for this posting.
#Barsoom chess series
This series includes the following titles : It's this series called the Barsoom Series that concerns us at the moment.
![barsoom chess barsoom chess](http://redskorpio.com.ar/images2/baronchesslogo.jpg)
Most remembered for his Tarzan tales, his John Carter stories weren't far behind. It's only fitting that the planet named for him would develop the most war-like variation of the Chess, itself a game of war.Įdgar Rice Burroughs was an extremely prolific and popular author in the fantasy genre.